This is the Rosen Shine podcast featuring the Swedish sisters Josephine Bruce and Victoria Russellson based in sophomore New York with your experiences from our international lives and careers Good morning. This is Victoria sending from Atlanta. Good morning. This is Josephine from all the top So today we thought you called me up and you said we need to have a special episode about Thanksgiving about Thanksfulness and gratefulness.
Yeah And that seemed like a write down our alley in terms of an interesting topic, but we can tell me you're in the States now So you're clearly inspired. Yes, obviously So actually it was so fun. I was having this moment You know, I'd been in Indianapolis for the first time in my life and I was coming back home to Atlanta I was sitting in this uber and first of all was like this beautiful day and the leaves like sparkling Georgia I love all the beautiful trees we have over here And then there was this like really lovely uber driver and I mean hey We should do like one episode about the stories you hear from all these amazing uber drivers So anyway, this uber driver He was from Haiti and you know We were speaking a bit of French and it ended up him sharing like his beautiful jazz music that he was playing with his Band and I was you know really thinking wow and then I was telling him to drive it faster because my daughters were doing their first Basketball cheerleading. That's funny.
I normally always ask them to drive slower because I always end up with these crazy I was in really I was just telling him to find the you know in Atlanta in the afternoon You can't drive fast anyway because things are really going slow But finding the fastest ways maybe the better idea of it And then I was thinking about so Thanksgiving was in my mind and then I was thinking about you and kind of smiling to myself That you know, we're not single mothers But we kind of are right now because Steve has been away and Andreas is still back in Sweden and you were two little boys and me with my teenage girls And I was thinking how that's actually pretty cool You know and that we're here in new countries and doing all of that and how cool that I had you used to WhatsApp Message away and then I was thinking yeah, I'm so grateful And I'm so blessed and I'm so happy and about everything that's going on and then I was thinking wow yeah Also looking forward to celebrate Thanksgiving. We should do special about that. Yes, so that's how and yeah And it was so beautiful because you really said we're like two single months as you know You know obviously thinking of our husband as well But but doing all of this and and putting in a lot of effort and of course we talked in the last episode about how some of these things can be really Challenging yeah, it's so important to remember the gratefulness that you feel and actually we there was a a tragedy in Steve's family That happened just a day or so ago and I won't go into that But it just reminded me again on how how grateful to be for every moment and every part of our lives Whether it's Thanksgiving or not and how special it is yeah just to be alive actually being a little bit Yeah, that's true. Yeah, and that kind of then what a perfect moment when we have this beautiful holiday Thanksgiving that I'm kind of gonna embrace and I've celebrated Thanksgiving in the 90s in the US and Kansas and I remember it fondly and Also actually even last year my two daughters before we knew we were coming over here We're like hey let's celebrate Thanksgiving.
I'm like well that's kind of an American holdin They're like why can't we be grateful and so I think it's kind of spreading around the world But really the event how it started was celebrated, you know with the pilgrims after their first harvest in 1621 yeah together with the Native Americans and the pilgrims so that's kind of the story But I was thinking rather than us speculating and talking about Thanksgiving Let's call a friend an American person can actually give us the ins and out on this and I thought who better to call than my wonderful friend and colleague Susan Hall and it's thanks to her that I live in Alfreda which I love and Sort of let her tell it to us the way it is kind of yeah, shall I give her a call? Let's call an American Let's call Susan. Let's call Susan We're calling Hi, Susan, how are you? Thank you so much for joining us this morning Absolutely, I'm so happy to be meeting you Susan and to have you on the line to help Clarifying Thanksgiving for us and all of our non-American listeners that might be more or less familiar with this beautiful tradition So can you just begin by describing Thanksgiving?
I mean what does Thanksgiving mean to you? So not to maybe the biggest biggest picture, but what is Thanksgiving to you and what do you do and eat them? Get all about the eating now. How do you celebrate?
Yeah, so you know thanks getting to me. I think as you get older it's all about family and about Eating and taking a pause. You know I think about the holidays everybody's so busy and it's so difficult even take a vacation We'll say I can't attend this meeting or I'm gonna be out of town But everybody stops, you know for a few days or even the whole week and scheduling all of anything next week is It's unusual so it's kind of like you part of the beginning of the week at the end of the week Thursday Friday Everybody stops. They're either gonna be the family or friends and shopping and So it's just nice.
No stop for a few days and then time be grateful eat family wonderful, so Susan out of pure interest and I mean this is this will be on Thanksgiving so other people will know about what you eat What should we get what should we prepare? It's like the quickest? Well, you know, they're going to sell and so I grew up in a south And so I'll tell you are traditional, you know, what we eat and then you know as we've added people to the family then you find out I know there's something for different parts of the country, but you know Turkey is basic. It's so funny.
It's involved There's only either fried turkey, but we're taking up a smoked turkey right by your house best smoked turkey and can is Oh, I'm not a close to where you live. We're picking up Thanksgiving days. We're being lazy when I'm cooking it so Turkey However, you're gonna eat it Dressing stuffing wherever you want to call it in the south to the cornbread dressing. Mm-hmm.
You don't want to make it you combine it public But yeah, I'm gonna get up and I always wanted my mother's recipe and she was without my saying Before Again, it's only the way people like with marshmallows pecans, which is roasted apples green bean casserole. Oh Cranberry Wellish, you know cranberries and orange. Okay, that's that's wonderful. I got the picture and I think I'm gonna cut for you So so Thanksgiving then is all about thankful nests as well, right and giving thanks and to some extent I imagine that revolves around the food, but how would you say that you practice?
Thanksfulness or gratefulness during Thanksgiving. Are there any rituals in place? You know for me that sort of evolved over time where you know when I grow up I mean we were just you know just generally grateful But when I got married and joined my husband's family I'm a table and say something that they were grateful for and we kind of stuck with that tradition and You know things evolve as life has been close sometimes They're huge things are great before sometimes it's you know difficult times a little thing that you're grateful for You can reach for a little bit, but we go enjoy that tradition kind of going around the table and take that's beautiful I love that it reminds us a little bit of our new year's Eve tradition, right Josephine Yeah, so each new year we go around the table saying the best thing that happened that year yeah, and but you know We can oh yeah, we're gonna bring that on great idea Susan I love that everyone sharing something very grateful for from the past year or just right now So what would you say Susan if you're if you're abroad and you're not an American and you want to start having a little bit of a Thanksgiving celebration so to all of our listeners so that I listening today and maybe kind of thinking okay Well, let's do something tonight. Let's celebrate.
What would be your your top three essentials to to have a Thanksgiving celebration abroad? Well, I think if you wanted to try to have an American Thanksgiving it would be you know the food you have turkey and Some sort of size like that and then just gathering people that you care about and we've had different things giving sometimes But this year was made with friends sometimes we've had huge family groups So just gathering people together yeah for a big meal and it didn't people have it at lunch dinner You know the timing doesn't matter You know gathering everybody together and then starting it out like you know just taking a moment to say what you're grateful Thank you for this beautiful I heard a lot of people started to talk about friendsgiving that they you know the weekend before they have friendsgiving Yeah, I think you know This morning and several people with their book clubs or just neighbors getting together and we've actually had a few Thanksgiving That was Thanksgiving and Yeah But yeah, I think people started doing that they just enjoyed me or they're gonna be traveling Getting together with friends and doing the same thing. Yeah, that's wonderful I mean we're gonna celebrate Thanksgiving with our Syrian American friends So I'm excited to see and with my vegetarian daughter So that's gonna be I can have to think about like the turkey being the main dish like how are we going to substitute that? But okay, we'll figure that out.
So Susan what would be yeah What would be what's like one of your craziest or funniest Thanksgiving memories? We had some friends invited us over here in Atlanta and And it's a large Jewish family that were from the Northeast has completely adopted the South and I have never in my life Still seems so much food and they had I can't remember what it was six or eight turkeys Pies every side dish imaginable and you know we brought something and they just had tables where family friends all lined up And about we were supposed to eat at five about four o'clock The mom, you know, it has invited us over So I kind of said and she started cooking pasta to add to this crazy feast and it was just It was just interesting to you and people You know celebrate a little bit different but I get that was the one that had to be in southeast That's wonderful So kind of rounding it all off Susan. How do you you know talking about gratefulness? How do you get gratefulness into your life not just when it comes to Thanksgiving, but just in general?
Well, you know five or six years ago I was meditating every day and just you know came in contact with gratefulness And I learned that you can't be grateful and something else at the same time So if you're angry and you start thinking of things that you're grateful for or your stress rate or your stat It's an amazing thing. I don't know, you know the points behind it. It's sort of like a brain can't process both of those feelings at the same time So I started doing that daily I meditate and then I think I'm grateful for and you know, tell you what's going on Sometimes you're tiny things, you know, the comfortable chair you're sitting in or blanket a fuzzy dog a cup of coffee, you know that kind of thing and Yeah, you know, even learned if you're really having a difficult time going through the alphabet and forcing yourself to think of something for every letter So if you ever can't wait, you can try that. That's the one so you mean you think on about like a so you think about So you think about your grateful, right?
Sometimes they're very tiny things like I didn't apple every day, you know, I love a really great apple. So wow, I love that idea Yeah, but a lot of us now when you're on meditation and talking about meditation So we talked a lot about it in our episodes and so many of the listeners still asking and I think about it Like how do you get it into your daily life and you say that you're meditating daily? How have you made it a daily habit when do you fit it in do you have any reminders to make it happen? This is just automatic do yeah That can be a key.
So just all my my iPhone the reminder app, okay It's that daily and what's interesting now is serious picked up on that. Oh, and she'll remind me that a reminder is coming I only do this for five minutes a day. I've never been able to get beyond that and I know that short period of time Will just it just makes that the clock so pops up reminder and then I it's just your counting to clear your mind And then I get a great one thing that's it cool. That's wonderful Well, thank you so much for for sharing Susan and I love the alphabet grateful nice So that was a cool thing and also great to have that reminder coming up and what time during today?
Do you actually do it? Great Wonder if that's when I try to get it into but I should get the reminder. That's a great idea. Yes, we will start too every day, right?
Yeah Lovely meeting you Susan. Thank you for joining our episode today and have a beautiful rest of the day and not too much of a food coma Thank you, thank you for joining and I'll talk you soon. Bye That was lovely to get to send to join us. So I love that ABC Greatfulness, so we're gonna start of I mean this is just wanting the idea the vision of this episode was to give everyone a little bit of an injection of Bringing gratefulness and thankfulness into our life And I just read very quickly this the difference between thankfulness and gratefulness and in essence It's just like thankfulness is kind of what you do It's the basic as a polite is saying thank you and it's sort of a great starting point But gratefulness is just a little bit deeper.
It's it's not just saying thank you for being polite But it's really yeah thinking about the things that really makes it different So talking about that how to get gratefulness into every day. What's your best advice just mean? Well, we talked about it before I mean I certainly write my gratefulness List three or three or so things that I'm grateful for I am trying to do it in the morning or in the evening Yeah And I think taking that time for yoga or meditation like Susan was talking about really takes that opportunity to shift out of your I'm so stressed and there's so many things and this is so hard and and all of that Overwhelmed that I feel a lot of us feel in this in this modern world Yeah And just sit back and look at the things that you actually do have and like we talked about last time shifting your focus Because it's all about what you ask you can ask about all the things that went wrong that they or you can ask about all of the things that that went Um, well that day. Yeah, you're so right and I read them I used to write an article about the the luck factor about the power of luck and who's lucky and who's not lucky and I think we'll do an episode on that There's so many interesting things and I love that research But one thing that stood out to me was you know They said that because they looked at what's the difference between is it just up to chance if you're unlucky or unlucky?
And one of the things that they found was that lucky people are in general much more grateful And they gave the example about someone who had an accident and you know Was the person who felt and had more that if she that they were always unlucky would be like, oh, that's so bad luck typical me Ended up in an accident, which of course it is while people who are more grateful in their life will be Oh, I'm so grateful that we survived this accident and that everything went well And it kind of reminds me of that time we were in the car accident and our car flipped over and rolled over a few times and we just walked out you and me and My daughter Isabel and how grateful we were and I remember that New Year's Eve is quite magical with all our friends coming in You know the food the New Year's Eve food was all over that mountain slope where we'd been rolling around So, you know, but just everyone bringing their things and that was a beautiful new year's Eve Absolutely with the theme of gratefulness really but does that mean then that lucky is more of um Is that studied more suggesting that lucky sub perception? I guess let's talk about that Luck episode I want to throw in another practice and love to hear if the listeners have more thoughts around it But it's how practice gratefulness with your children. Yeah, I already now tried to ask Raphael each night What was the nicest thing that happened today or the coziest thing that happened today? Just so that that will be the last thing that he kind of thinks about before going to sleep Yeah, but there are of course more ways of making kids practice gratefulness and it's such a beautiful habit to have so more thoughts on that How do you do with the girls?
I think that's great Yes, we we do that too and we talk about that and I'm thinking now that I'm listening to you that maybe it's more like me stating Oh, we were so grateful. We should be so grateful and I'm so grateful for this But really to to have the dialogue about that. I think it really adds value and yeah It's also really nice. So just like you I also start the day with the three things that I'm grateful for that morning and that you know Then the day is good immediately.
Yeah, also when I'm really tired and it's time for my evening journaling If I'm like super exhausted at least I'll just write down like do quick brainstorm and things that I'm grateful for in my life right now But that always kind of works and I will try the alphabet that Susan mentioned because both you and I have said that we end up just saying You know, I'm grateful for the kids for the family or you kind of get stuck on that on the big things that you are grateful for Which is of course beautiful, but to recognize those smaller things the alphabet practice might be a might be a great way of going So so so let's try it out actually so what we wanted to ask him or inspire all of you listeners to is that in the next few days just take a moment and Actually write down things make your own gratefulness list, but why not making your own gratefulness alphabet? Yeah, so let's throw it out there and and challenge yourself and feel free to share But if you have what's your gratefulness alphabet? So just a mean, I'm gonna throw you a letter. Let's see What about the letter?
D what are you anything on D that you're grateful for? D I am grateful for this beautiful day That's great. Yeah, you see And the sun is actually out this day so um which has been behind the clouds for many many days So maybe that's a wonderful so throw me a letter. Oh, oh, yeah Oh I am grateful for all the oh Moments that I've had lately like Realizations and wonders and I actually Walked into my new home last night and they've just started to do all the painting and I really went like oh And the warm plastic feeling around that and that was wonderful I'm actually super grateful for that beautiful So I think we're wrapping up now for this little Thanksgiving special So for all our new listeners, this is really where we were just digging into gratefulness and thankfulness and and the keep on listening to all of our other episodes coming up And the questions one if you haven't done that already our last episode And we will see you soon again We will thank you so much for listening and Good luck with all your gratefulness practices and we are so grateful for having all of you listening to our podcast Indeed have a beautiful Thanksgiving whether you're celebrating it or not, but you can always add a little bit of Thankfulness around the dinner table.
Yeah, and you know sometimes I say to people in my workshops I say hey copy with pride When you hear good ideas from your neighbors So if you want to be grateful and you know do Thanksgiving your version I mean we do have listeners from all over the world So wherever you are, I would say just embrace the the moment to be grateful together with your friends or family To kind of really take a moment to do that. Absolutely. Okay, everybody. Have a lovely day.
Bye everyone. Take care. Bye